A door opens and a father and son enter the
room. Both carry large bags of groceries, and the father is using the instep of
his right foot to slide a box through the threshold. They both stop at the table
just inside the door and place the bags into the nearby chairs.

FATHER (calling out)

Hello? We’re Home!

He pauses for a moment, then turns to his
son.

FATHER (Whispering)

Hey, don’t tell your mother we
went out to eat, she was cooking supper.

The son nods in agreement.

FATHER

And remember, you promised to
clean your room before you start playing Xbox.

SON

Dad! Really?

FATHER

Go. It’s not that bad, it shouldn’t
take you more than a minute if you hurry.

The father watches as his son storms up the
stairs and out of view. The fathers voice can be heard through a heating vent
in the floor.

INT. BOYS ROOM. DAY

FATHER

And no playing around, get it
done!

The boy collapses into his
beanbag chair, crossing his arms defiantly. He begins to brood, and after a
moment his fathers voice again sifts up through the vent in the floor.

FATHER (O.S.)

Honey, are you home?

The boy begins distractedly lobbing toys into
his toy box on the opposite wall, not noticing that roughly half of them
ricochet back onto the floor. A red ball caroms off the lip of the box, bounces
across his line of sight and rolls under his bed. He’s almost ready to
disregard it when the ball rolls back, striking him in the foot. He kneels to pick
it up, and tilts his head to look under the bed to see what may have knocked it
back to him. A woman’s face gazes back at him. As he notices that a strip of
cloth has been tied around her mouth, his eyes widen in alarm.

BOY

Mommy!

The boy starts to reach under the bed, but
his mother shakes her head., motioning for him to stop. She gestures with her
hands, which are bound as well, in the direction of the toy box. The boy takes
the hint and begins to draw himself back out from under the bed. Before he has
a chance to turn, he hears the out of place sound of something moving from
within the toy box. Reluctantly, he turns to look.

His favorite Teddy Bear, Mr. Snuggles, leans
over the edge of the toy box. The furry two and a half tall bear shifts from
side to side, looking for something. The boy is about to turn back for his
mother when the bear pulls a black and silver plastic hilt from the toybox and
extends a bright red LIGHTSABER blade in his direction. The bears face twists
into a grin.

The boy starts for the door, but after a step
turns back for his mother. He dives for her in an attempt to pull her free.
Instead of reaching for him, she grabs another toy LIGHTSABER hilt from under
the bed and rolls it to him.

The BOY grabs it, rolls away from the bed and
jumps to his feet. He presses the large red button on the hilt and a green
LIGHTSABER blade extends out.

The bear strikes first, swiping at the BOY.
The BOY dives to the side, rising to one knee and bringing his own blade at the
bear in an upward ark. The bear blocks the blow, but is forced back a step. The
bear plants a foot on the edge of a nearby chair, flips over the boys head and
begins to strike at the back of his head, but the boy turns around and
unleashes a viscous overhead smash with his LIGHTSABER, forcing the bear off
the floor back first and causing the red LIGHTSABER to shut off and bounce from
the bears grasp.

The boy rises to both feet, saber raised for
a finishing blow, but Snuggles snatches a toy gun from the floow nearby and
fires a volley of laser bursts. Quickly, the boy deflects the first few shots
before returning the last shot back down the guns barrel, causing it to
explode.

The bear retracts its hand quickly and
thrusts it to the side. The LIGHTSABER hilt skitters toward the bear, which
snatches it and turns it on. The boy quickly stamps on the bears hand, pinning
the LIGHTSABER to the floor with it. The boy calmly takes the LIGHTSABER from
the bear and, after shutting it off, rolls it under his desk.

He hoists the bear over his head and begins
to pace towards the toybox. The bear strikes at his arms, but fluffy bear arms
aren’t known for their death dealing prowess. The boy slams the bear into the
toybox, before slapping the lid onto it and sitting atop it. The bear tries to
knock the toybox over, but only manages to cause it to rock slightly.

The bear struggles for another moment or two,
until the bedroom door opens briskly. It stops a moment before the boys FATHER
opens the bedroom door and gapes at the bedroom, now even more cluttered than
before.

BOY

Da..

FATHER

STOP. I don’t want to hear it.
Just stop screwing around and get this mess cleaned up.

The boy tries to start again, but the father
cuts him off.

FATHER

I’m not kidding, get this cleaned
up!

The boy slumps his shoulders dejectedly as
his father turns and walks off. He slides slowly from his toy box and opens the
lid. The bear is still inside, looking fairly innocuous without the red glow in
its eyes. He replaces the lid and sets a box atop it before beginning to clean
his room again. He leans beneath his bed to check it, but it is empty.

A creak in the floor behind startles him, and
he turns, ready to fight.

BOY

Mom!

He runs over and gives her a big hug. Too big
it seems, as she is surprised by the gesture.

MOM

What’s this for?

The boy smiles as they leave the room. As
they round the corner and take the first few steps down the stairs, a light
thumping can be heard from the bedroom.

INT. BOYS ROOM. NIGHT

A red glow seeps from under the lid of the
toybox, and the plastic lid pops up.

0
comments:

Donate

Did you stumble across one of my books online? Did you intentionally download a torrent in order to check it out, but would rather kick a few bucks my way directly instead of going through amazon, etc? Feel free to do so here, no questions asked and no personal information necessary.